We recently connected with Jami Jenkins and have shared our conversation below.

Jami, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

From the beginning we knew our vacation rentals needed to reflect who we are, our passions and our way of life. They needed to inspire creativity, bring joy, bring people together, and do so within our commitment to stewardship of resources. We personally use our three vacation cabins as our own family getaways, making them available to others when we’re not enjoying them.

At home, we consciously choose products that are safer for our health by reducing toxins. Since our cabins were built and designed by us, we could take things a step further and showcase that no matter the size or design of the space you can incorporate good stewardship principles while showcasing comfortable and stunning design.

At the cabins, we were able to raise the bar encompassing time, talent, finances, and sustainability into our stewardship goals to deliver luxury stays for discerning travelers. This started with the high functioning layouts, then selection of sustainable and non-toxic materials. From exterior materials and insulation, to fabrics and body products, every purchase was put through our stewardship filters.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My degrees in art and interior design and background in event management give me a unique skillset for creating guest experiences. Architectural design focuses on high functioning spaces where people have adequate space to take care of necessary tasks while event management focuses on creating an experience as people move through, giving them a desire to discover the next reveal. Degrees in art and interior design bring creativity, inspiration and comfort.

We have set ourselves apart by creating sustainable, luxury vacation rentals that offer comfort and function, in addition to a pretty face, and get many requests for blueprints of our cabins. We’re happy to create something unique for interested persons, but do not offer plans of our vacation rentals.

It may be the placement of our cabins on the property to capture stunning views, the incredible sleeping experience we offer (mentioned by so many guests!), or the organic small batch soap we make and provide for our guests, or all of the little details combined, this is what keeps guests coming back.

Any advice for managing a team?

Guest satisfaction is number one priority for us and the most critical component of delivering a five star stay is our cleaning team. They’re the backbone of our business.

After three failed attempts at using cleaning “companies” we pivoted and started hiring stay-at-home moms. No one has more experience cleaning! We have a team of four dedicated cleaners, most of which work exclusively for us despite being contractors. We also have one “auditor” and one person who both cleans and audits for us.

Each is scheduled based on their preferred schedule. Some only want 1-2 cleans a week, some can only clean on certain days. Everyone has access to our shared scheduling calendar and is assigned to bookings as they come through so their schedule is known months in advance.

When hiring, I look not just for someone who has the skills and integrity, but also someone who has a passion for hospitality and team spirit. We’re not looking for heroes, we’re building a team. When a new team member is added, an introduction is made via a group text. Each current team member introduces themselves and shares a helpful tip for cleaning the cabins – “Start at the top”, “Wash towels first”, “Don’t put beds off until the last, you’ll regret it!” are a few helpful hints.

The team is in constant communication and always jumping in to help others out with questions. We commiserate together share success together.

We pay a fair wage, offer annual bonuses, and Christmas bonuses, and take them to lunch quarterly. These things help foster the team mentality. Only two of our team members knew each other when they started working for us but now all of them are friends and several plan activities together in their free time.

We’re proud of the team we’ve assembled and are aware they are counting on the scheduled cleanings to put food on the table for their families. We are the only vacation rental I know that pays its cleaner if a booking gets canceled inside of two weeks. If we get paid, they get paid.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

It’s true that small business owners wear all the hats but sometimes it feels like the marketing headpiece is really heavy! Keeping up with social media accounts is time consuming and it can be easy to forget that you have this warm market waiting for more information. Scheduling is key to make sure you’re hitting each area with a frequency that is comfortable to person you’re targeting.

Our warmest group is our SMS subscribers. They’ve trusted us to deliver last minute opportunities (think cancelations that have opened up booking opporunities) to their phones, we don’t want to abuse the privilege and lose their trust. Depending on the season, our 800 SMS subscribers will see a text every 2-4 weeks.

The next group would be our email subscribers. This is the group that wants to know what we’re up to and what the longer view looks like. E-newsletters are sent about every 4-6 weeks and includes links to our blogs and any current specials.

As for social accounts, our Instagram accounts @ecoluxevacations, @carpenterscabinoh, @twelve34house, and @glocabin take priority with our @ecoluxevacations TikTok account coming before YouTube shorts and Twitter. Facebook sees less engagement but we do engage on the platform.

Great guests get rewarded. Following the stay we text the guest offering our best discount code for a future stay. And because we believe good people know the good people, they can share this code with friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.staythehockinghills.com
• Instagram: @ecoluxevacations @carpenterscabinoh @twelve34house @glocabin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecoluxevacations
• Twitter: @ecoluxevacay
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ecoluxevacations
• Other: TikTok @ecoluxevacations

Image Credits
@shelbywilray @themundlife @levikelly @ecoluxevacations